


free your mind, you say

by invertedrainbow



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: M/M, joel makes a big deal out of it, ray gets a tattoo, sort of, that's pretty much it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-04
Updated: 2014-02-04
Packaged: 2018-01-11 04:10:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1168503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invertedrainbow/pseuds/invertedrainbow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Needless to say, it hurts significantly, but nothing a little healing won’t fix. He has it on the right arm, strategically placed on the wrist so it wouldn’t be as noticeable as he has hoped. Ray thinks it is never about what people think about the tattoo, it’s more about what drove him to get one.</p><p>But somehow, he feels a little guilty about not telling Joel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	free your mind, you say

When Ray sees Geoff’s new tattoos for the first time, he finds the ink on his hands hypnotizing. It looks so beautiful, like choosing to stain your skin forever is the most beautiful concept he has never done in his life. So he stares at Michael’s arms and see the Ganondorf tattoo on his left arm, then the Gears of War tattoo on his right arm and a thing in him clicked into place: he wanted a tattoo.

It takes him a few more days to be absolutely sure about it, before he sends a text to Michael, asking a good tattoo parlor.

_Why? Getting a tat?_

**Well, I was thinking of having one. I mean, YOLO right?**

_Dude, I support you 100% about this, but if you give me a reason like that, I would probably not let you have one._

**I kid, I kid. I don’t know how to make it seem less n00bish, but I really want to have one. Geoff’s new tats were amazing; I couldn’t stop staring at it. Yours were so cool too.**

_Well, okay then. Tomorrow? We could ask Geoff or Griffon where they did theirs._

**Thanks man :D**

_For the sake of Team Better Friends!_

 

 

 

Geoff seems indifferent about Ray having a tattoo, but he inspects Ray’s arms, smiles, then says, “What took you so long?”

“Meh, well, you know,” Ray shrugs as he stares at the address given to him via text.

“A late bloomer? Congratulations, Ray!” Jack says, and Geoff cackles. “What?”

“Dude, you were an even later bloomer than him, so shut up.”

 

 

 

Needless to say, it hurts significantly, but nothing a little healing won’t fix. He has it on the right arm, strategically placed on the wrist so it wouldn’t be as noticeable as he has hoped. Ray thinks it is never about what people think about the tattoo, it’s more about what drove him to get one.

But somehow, he feels a little guilty about not telling Joel.

 

 

 

He finds out that the wrist might not be a great location.

When Joel pulls him aside for a short conversation, he tugs Ray’s right wrist and Ray immediately yelps, “Ow, ow, ow, okay, um, dude, my wrist, let go,” and Joel does. He raises it up in view and Joel frowns almost immediately.

“When did you get it?” Joel asks, and Ray knows he’s upset.

“Five days ago,” Ray answers, hiding the tattoo quickly. “I’m sorry, I should have told you—“

He pauses when he sees Joel’s gaze on his wrist, so he gives it again, and Joel stares inquisitively, running a finger around it. “It looks like it’s healing well. How often do you wash it?”

“Two to three times,” Ray tells him, and he would be lying if he isn’t distracted with what Joel is doing.  But then again, Joel has always been good at that, really.

Dating Joel has always been fun, because Joel provides him with the excitement in his otherwise boring life. He very often tells Joel that and Joel would just laugh, saying that it’s the same with dating Ray. (He doesn’t believe it one bit, even though Joel’s a great liar.)

“It looks like it’s healing well, so far,” Joel says, and Ray grins at him in thanks, but Joel doesn’t respond accordingly, so Ray figures something’s wrong. When Ray asks, Joel simply says, “Never do this without me ever again.”

It annoys Ray, somewhat. Joel is never the possessive type, and he never says things like this, but now that he does something out of the norm, Joel gets his knickers in a twist and becomes a total ass about it. He stares down his healing tattoo and frowns, and even the small kiss Joel gave him on his cheek isn’t making it any better.

 

 

 

Ray figures Joel noticed his annoyance for the whole day when he never left the Achievement Hunter office all day. He only left to get water and to pee, and none of which Joel was around to apologize. So when he opens his doorway to reveal a Joel with roses in his hands, he wonders if he should forgive him.

Who is he kidding? The roses are beautiful, and Joel seems very apologetic, so he lets him in.

Dinner passes by without any mishaps, and Ray commends Joel for the job well done with the instant noodles.

“Well, if you let me treat you dinner tonight, we wouldn’t be stuck with this,” Joel rolls his eyes, and Ray laughs. “What is with you and the outside world?”

“There are bad guys there,” Ray pouts and points at the door. “You wouldn’t want little ‘ol me to be  _hurt_ , would you?”

The rest of the night turns out to be an uneventful one when Joel goes to the liberty of opening Ray’s Xbox, to which Ray exclaims, “Don’t you even dare mess up my stats!” when he enters the bathroom so he could take a shower. It takes him enough time to do his mandatory maintenance for the tattoo, so when he returns to the living room, Joel is halfway the second level of Halo 4.

“Sometimes, I feel like you’re just here to play Halo,” Ray mumbles, and as soon as he says that, Joel turns off the console and stands up, scooping Ray in his arms and goes straight to Ray’s bedroom. “Oh, and have sex.”

“Believe it or not, I actually have no interest in that tonight, whatsoever.”

When Joel lays Ray down on the bed, he joins him shortly with a curt smile, and with his arms around Ray’s waist and his lips on Ray’s forehead, he feels like he’s in complete peace. Ray, in the other hand, feels like something’s wrong. So he calls it out.

“Is this still about the tattoo thing?” Ray asks, completely apologetic. “I really am sorry for not telling you.”

“Nah, it’s not that,” Joel assures, but Ray is insistent.

“Tell me. I’m stupid; I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Never say that. Also, I’m having a midlife crisis,” Joel says, his voice weirdly calming, and Ray could feel his eyes drooping. “I don’t know if you know this, Ray, but I’m old.”

“Yeah, we have discussed this a few times over the past few months,” Ray mumbles with a smile, pressing himself closer to Joel, just to assure him that he’s still there. “I’m sorry.”

“Hmm?”

“I know I’m just a kid; I really understand where you’re going with this. But,” Their hands are entwined now, perfect and on the dot. “I really want this to work.”

“Isn’t it working?”

“You’re holding back,” Ray sits up to crawl to Joel’s stomach, Joel guiding him all the way with his hands on Ray’s waist. He lets out a soft moan when he slides down to Joel’s crotch area, and he rolls his hips down, smiling to himself when he realizes Joel’s getting hard. “I’ve been alone for most of my life as an adult, and you know how stubborn I am in general, so even if you stop trying, I’m just gonna keep on making it work, you know?”

Joel finds it so convenient that Ray’s wearing boxers, so sliding it off is easy enough. Before anything, Ray grabs the bottle of lube on his bedside drawer and grins, passing it to Joel, who then pours some on his fingers. Ray leans down to Joel to give him access, and when Joel prods on Ray’s entrance with his fingers, Ray tenses.

“I thought you weren’t interested on this?” Ray asks.

“We’re still talking, go on,” Joel urges on, pushing a finger in, earning a gasp and squirm from the other. “Cold?”

“Yeah,” Ray says, sighing breathily. “I just don’t understand—“

He is cut off when Joel enters another finger, scissoring him open. Ray’s knees start to tremble and Joel is still urging him on with his lips on his neck. “Go on.”

“I don’t understand why you’re upset about the tattoo,” Ray manages to let out, his cock leaking precum and his hips grinding down for friction, contact,  _anything_. “If anything, I even asked Michael and Geoff about it. Even Griffon.”

“That should have been me,” Joel grits his teeth when he inserts the third, letting Ray get used to it. “I do get jealous too, you know.”

“B-but you were busy abou—“ Ray is cut off with his own moan when Joel brushes against the nerves, shushing himself by biting on to his finger.

“Let it out,” Joel whispers, pulling Ray’s finger away and replaces it with a kiss, the first time that night. Kisses come infrequent and longed for, and that’s simply how Ray wants it. He doesn’t want it to be routinary, like kissing before going to work, or saying good bye, or saying goodnight. It is something he always looks forward to because Joel would always tease, and when they kiss, Ray is just electrified, and he continues to wonder how a simple touching of lips would make him feel so alive.

Ray whines when Joel slips his fingers out of him, but when he hears the familiar crinkle of plastic, he waits. With a hand on his leg, it urges him to keep on talking.

“You were busy about everything,” Ray mumbles, and when Joel pulls him back to his stomach, he gasps when their erections brush against each other for a second. “Ah, god,  _Joel_ —“

“Number one, I am never busy,” Joel slides his cock against Ray’s entrance and Ray does a small whine, groaning at the lack of contact. “Number two, I always have time for you.”

“Liar,” Ray accuses, and before he could explain, Joel quickly slicks his cock and enters him, and it takes everything Ray has not to cry out.

“Say what now?” Joel grins, and Ray ultimately wants to hit him on the face.

He lets Ray get used to it, or until Ray is squirming and begging for him to move, so he indulges by holding Ray into place and thrusting up, and he drowns in sweet, sweet moans.

“I don’t think you understand this, Ray,” Joel says in the middle of everything, and Ray insists on listening, so he opens his eyes and keeps eye contact long enough. “I will never want anyone as much as I want you.”

And Ray is moaning against Joel’s mouth, telling him that he’s an idiot, that he is hopeless, and when he comes, he thinks that maybe, just maybe, he will never love anyone as much as he loves Joel.

Joel slides out of Ray and Ray helps him finish off, and when Joel comes, Ray’s name is on his lips. They are sweaty and smell distinctly of sex, and Ray groans about taking a shower again, but Joel shuts him up with another kiss, and Ray lets himself get immersed into it. They’re tired, Joel is falling asleep, and Ray’s tracing the details on Joel’s face, like the frown lines, the bags under his eyes, and that jaw line.

Joel carefully brings Ray’s tattooed wrist up in view and he kisses it softly, not wanting to hurt Ray.

“I wish you told me about this too. I really wanted to be there for everything.”

“I’m sorry, I really am. Promise.”

“I believe you. But,” Joel asks, obviously trying not to fall asleep at that point.  “Why “achieve”, though?” Ray smiles, knowing that Joel would ask sooner or later, but when he opens his mouth to answer, he notices that Joel’s already asleep.

“It’s because that’s how I met you,” Ray answers anyway, kissing Joel on the forehead before letting himself lose on his ongoing fight with the bed.

**Author's Note:**

> posting this from tumblr


End file.
